Jessica Chastain Joins Javier Bardem In J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year

I don’t know if you guys can possibly believe it, but it’s been well over a month since we’ve had any casting news involving Jessica Chastain! Technically, we did talk about her not starring in the planned Hilary Clinton biopic last month, but that doesn’t really count. But today the streak ends. The Academy Award-nominated actress has signed on to co-star with Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem in the upcoming dramaA Most Violent Year.

The movie will be the third film from writer-director J.C. Chandor, who made the financial crisis drama Margin Call. While these two actors wouldn’t have rolled off of my tongue immediately when thinking about pairing interesting co-stars, this should be quite the interesting team-up, assuming the film’s storyline allows for it.

Much like Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sci-fi drama Interstellar, which Chastain is set to begin filming next month, not a lot of details have been released concerning A Most Violent Year's story. In fact, nothing has officially been said about it at all - but there is a Tumblr fansite devoted to the director that offered up a synopsis when Bardem joined the film. That said, there don't appear to be any sources to doublecheck, and the site doesn’t say where the info came from. According to the site, “Bardem will reportedly play the ‘good guy’, an ambitious businessman who is forced to deal with a corrupt establishment in 1980s New York.” There's no word on what Chastain’s role will be.

The description sounds much more similar to the business-heavy world of Margin Call than Chandor’s second film, the upcoming action drama All is Lost. In that film, Robert Redford plays a sailor whose boat crashes into a shipping container at sea, and he must figure out how to survive in such harsh conditions. Not a lot of 1980s New York going on there. While I’d love to see Bardem take on a bunch of corrupt businessmen, seeing him as a good guy will take a little getting used to (if Daniel Craig ends up playing one of the businessmen, I’ll freak out).

Chastain already lit up screens earlier this year in the horror flick Mama and the quasi-biopic Tar, but will also soon be seen in Ned Benson’s intriguing dual film The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (which as both a “His” and a “Hers” version of the story). She’s finished filming the historical drama Miss Julie, and will be filming the Guillermo del Toro gothic horror film Crimson Peak at the beginning of next year. She’s attached to star in the adaptation of The Zookeeper’s Wife, though it’s unclear when that will begin production.

According to the fansite, A Most Violent Year is set to begin filming in Manhattan next month.